Southwest Airlines to report Q1 in the red?

After American Airlines parent AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) reported surprising first-quarter results today, eyes turn next to rival Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), which is scheduled to discuss its first-quarter results tomorrow, April 16, in a conference call at 11:30 AM ET with CEO Gary Kelly and CFO Laura Wright. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

For the quarter that saw Southwest declare its 130th consecutive quarterly dividend and named by Fortune magazine as one of the most admired companies in the world, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Dallas-based airline to report a loss of $0.01 per share, compared to a profit of $0.06 cents per share in the same period of the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter is expected to total $2.4 billion, 5.1% lower than a year ago.

Southwest's earnings have beat estimates in the past five quarters, by as much as a nickel a share

Looking ahead to the second quarter, analysts expect to see earnings again: $0.17 per share, or a penny better than a year ago.

The estimated revenue of $2.7 billion is also about 5% lower. And Southwest has announced service to Boston's Logan International airport coming soon.

Analysts, on average, expect Southwest's long-term EPS growth rate to be 12.7%, which is about that same as that of rival JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU). Southwest's forward P/E ratio estimate is 16.0, but the consensus recommendation remains to hold LUV. The share price is about 13% lower than at the beginning of the year, and it's about 40% lower than it was a year ago.
See BloggingStocks' Southwest coverage for more information about the no-frills airline.
Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage